The Movie
Tiziano Sclavi created the Italian comic book series Dylan Dog and much has apparently been lost in translation to the big screen for last year's feature film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. It's a competent directorial effort by Kevin Munroe (TMNT) certainly but the contrivances and the dialogue are so corny and utterly out-of-step with modern sensibilities, Dog almost assumes that we've never seen another movie before. Here's a sample exchange between supernatural private eye Dylan (Brandon Routh) and a prospective client (Anita Briem):
She: "Can I help you?"
He: "No, that's what I do."
Wow.
He takes the case, tracking the werewolf who killed her father, an importer of rare antiquities in New Orleans. The town is also rife with vampires and zombies, and Dylan used to be the go-to human to keep the peace in the monster community, until he gave it all up for reasons eventually revealed. He's joined on this return to duty by a partner (Sam Huntington) resisting his recent conversion to the walking dead. This struggle is supposed to be funny but instead it's just monumentally annoying. There's also a brewing plot to create an über-monster, but nothing in this movie is notably fresh or original... or all that interesting.
The Picture
The 2.4:1 Dylan Dog was shot on 35mm film, a process which yields incredible details in many shots right down to razor-sharp pores, all with minimal noise and grain. Colors and brightness levels are a little hinky at times, and the blacks are a mixed bag too, with Routh's jet-black mop in particular looking like a nondescript blob atop his head. But all in all a solid effort.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1-channel soundtrack is fine but in no way spectacular. There's a fair amount of off-camera action conveyed via the rear speakers, the din of a bustling nightclub is adequately conveyed, and a persistent fly buzzes all around the city morgue. I noted some directionality in the firing of Dylan's wood-tipped bullets, followed by some really lame-ass gunshots too, as if the sound editors just gave up at some point.
The Extras
There's nothing here really, unless you count promos for other Fox titles or for their Digital Copy initiative--not relevant on this title--which I don't. I understand why they didn't bother, even though comic book adaptations, especially little-known ones like this, really lend themselves to supplemental discussion.
Final Thoughts
There are fans of the comic book out there (Dark Horse brought the series to America in 1999) and so this ill-conceived but relatively well-produced dramatization might be of interest to them.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
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